The Family Retreat: 'Few psychological thrillers ring so true.' The Sunday Times Crime Club Star Pick

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As autumn approaches, Jess - and the reader - will come to realise this is going to end in a way no-one could have imagined... I am addicted to summer thrillers this year. Last year I had a thing for flight-based thrillers. This year it’s definitely the ‘summer holiday gone horribly wrong’ vibe I am loving! So when The Family Retreat landed on my radar I was, of course, drawn to it. I love the cover. It screams ‘PERIL’ at me, with the child in the ocean, and I found the blurb to be very intriguing. Plus a lot of the summer thrillers I’ve read recently have been set overseas but The Family Retreat is based in beautiful Dorset, which was also a pull. It’s an extremely well-written, suspenseful, dark tale which I devoured. This is a well-paced tale where tension builds slowly over the course of the book. I adored the sweeping, dramatic setting which could be picture perfect one minute and a brooding, angry, dangerous threat the next. There’s a sub-plot featuring Jess’s parents which I thought really added to the story. Making characters that already felt real to me even more believable. With the extended absence of husband Rob (away on a business trip in the US), with the strange behaviour of her father, with the pressure to return to work, with two young children to look after and the need to fit into a new community, it’s no wonder that Jess has the weight of the world on her shoulders.

But as the weeks went on, something started to shift. It was during a stay on Ko Phi Phi island in Thailand, when a woman I’d met earlier on the beach approached me and asked if I was free that evening. She’d invited a few other women to meet for dinner. Would I like to join them? We were six women of different ages. At the meal she told us it was her 40th birthday and, as she was travelling alone, she’d decided to celebrate by gathering together a group of women she’d enjoyed meeting during the week. As the waves lapped on the beach, we sat together under a canopy of fairylights eating pad Thai and drinking Tiger beer, and for the next four hours we shared stories about our lives: hopes, dreams, sadness, loss and disappointment. I felt profoundly moved by the honesty of these strangers, and was surprised, too, by the ease with which I felt able to share things about myself. I felt profoundly moved by the honesty of these strangers, and by the ease with which I felt able to share things There is also the local farmer Pete and his wife Joyce and their eighteen year old son Loe who has learning difficulties. In the adjoining cottage is Penny and her father Phillip.I read A Good Enough Mother by this author which was incredible, so I was delighted to get my hands on this one and it didn’t disappoint. I LOVE the author’s style of writing; her prose, her reflections, her hints of what is to come swept me right into this story. And I don’t often quote parts of books but the following passage brought tears to my eyes (yes another book that’s made me cry round the pool in Fuerteventura, I’m on a roll here! 😭) as it was just so powerful and perfect. I loved the descriptions of the surroundings, making the coast and the dancing ledge almost a character in its own right and of the characters I felt I could really picture the story as it unfolded and it kept me intrigued to see what would happen next and if my suspicions were correct.

On holiday with her family, Jess starts to ingratiate herself with the other people living near her country cottage – villagers and visitors. And while on the surface, it is all sweeping beaches and sinking your toes into the sand here, there are several harrowing stories playing out beneath the picturesque surface. A horror is about to explode in the idyll. Jess has a high demanding job not just as a partner in a GP practice but also volunteering for the safeguarding team. Overall, the plot is good but I would have enjoyed it more with a more in the moment proactive approach from Jess.

About this book

Jess, a doctor, has been having some problems at work. She also doesn't feel she is getting enough support from her husband. But perhaps this trip to the seaside will be just what she needs.